


New Life

by imaginationisrainbowcoloured



Category: Level 16 (2018)
Genre: Escape, Gen, Level 10, Level 11, Level 12, Level 13, Level 14, Level 15, Level 16 - Freeform, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery, Therapy, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, unhealthy thinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-28 07:15:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30135948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginationisrainbowcoloured/pseuds/imaginationisrainbowcoloured
Summary: Ava was her final appointment for the day- she had been assigned all the girls that had been in ‘Rose Hall’ which included the two ‘rebellious’. Sophia and Vivian.They were an odd pair, switching widely between only interacting with each other and trying to mother all of the other girls. She supposed that the few days they had spent running around, knowing the awful secret that school had hidden must have both strengthened their bond and made them feel so very separate from the others.Taylor consulted her notes, sighed as she walked down the corridor and took a left into the office she shared with the other therapists at the institution. The ones who had been assigned to Level 13, Lily Hall, and Level 11, Rose Hall, were already in there, and they looked as exhausted as she felt.
Relationships: Ava & Vivien (Level 16), Sophia/Vivien (Level 16)
Kudos: 1





	New Life

The hallway was bright, almost too bright, as if it were trying to make up for the greyness its inhabitants had come from. Dr Taylor wanted to cover her eyes, avoid the burning brightness, or order the hallway to be painted grey. But that wouldn’t help the girls, it would most likely regress them.

“Hello.” She said gently as she entered the room. The next girl was already in there, waiting for her, and still dressed in the modest uniform they had all worn in the school.

“I am Student Ava.” The girl informed her, rising politely.

Dr Taylor sighed, all the girls had introduced themselves in such a manner so far, even the two that had been classed as ‘rebellious’, the intense indoctrination that they had gone through was not an easy habit to break.

“Just Ava.” She reminded the girl carefully.

“Sorry,” the girl replied, “I am Ava.”

“Good.” Taylor responded, sitting in one of the chairs, and gesturing for the girl to do the same. Ava sat and folded her hands in her lap again, the actual picture of the ‘perfect’ young woman that school had tried to create.

Ava didn’t say anything, just watched her carefully as she set out her clipboard, note paper and pen, and she didn’t smile when Taylor looked back up at her.

“Alright, Ava, let’s start simple for your first session, yes?”

Ava nodded, but it felt more like a nod because she though that was what was expected of her than because she agreed with the suggestion.

“Hmm.” Taylor made a careful note of that and then smiled back at Ava. “How are you sleeping?”

Ava’s neutral expression faltered for the first time since she had entered the room. “More than I should. The teachers aren’t happy.”

She made another quick note to remind the other nurses in the institution to be more lenient with the girls. “How are you adjusting to the 12-hour days?”

Ava shrugged, the first gesture she had made, “It’s weird.”

“How so?” Taylor dropped the clipboard on the table and leaned forwards.

This had the opposite effect it normally had, Ava did not look more comfortable now that she had stopped taking notes, she just shifted in her seat and avoided eye contact.

“I don’t know.” She said. “I feel very tired and I expect to go to bed when they expect us to eat a second meal. I don’t understand why we can’t stay on the days we had previously.”

“Do you want me to tell you?”

Ava shook her head furiously. “Curiosity is the second vice.”

“We don’t use that anymore, remember?” 

Ava nodded, looking down at her feet. “The vices they taught us were a way to control us.” It was obvious she was echoing something rather than thinking for herself.

“Exactly.” Taylor made another note, they needed to replace these mantras the girls had with something more healthy. “Now, do you want to know the answer to your question?”

Ava paused. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Alright. Well, tell me if you change your mind.”

*

Ava was her final appointment for the day- she had been assigned all the girls that had been in ‘Rose Hall’ which included the two ‘rebellious’. Sophia and Vivian.   
They were an odd pair, switching widely between only interacting with each other and trying to mother all of the other girls. She supposed that the few days they had spent running around, knowing the awful secret that school had hidden must have both strengthened their bond and made them feel so very separate from the others.

Taylor consulted her notes, sighed as she walked down the corridor and took a left into the office she shared with the other therapists at the institution. The ones who had been assigned to Level 13, Lily Hall, and Level 11, Rose Hall, were already in there, and they looked as exhausted as she felt.

“Hey.” She greeted them, moving to file the notes she had made during Ava’s session.

They both mumbled out greetings in response, Davis hunched over a cup of coffee and looking utterly miserable.

“You ok?”

Davis sighed, “I just have so many questions that I cannot ask the girls, I wish we could drag their Miss Brixil down here and ask her them, just so I can have some context.”

Taylor sighed, running a hand over her shoulder, “I know.”

“I mean,” Davis sighed and set her cup down heavily, “why no sunshine? Does it really cause that much damage to skin? Why 5 hour days? Why not 12 hour days or no hour days? Why not just keep them asleep all the time?”

“Yeah, I get you.” Taylor sighed and sat down. “How are yours adjusting to the new day length?”

“Not great. They’re just kids, some of them are throwing up lunch and dinner because their bodies aren’t used to that amount of food. It’s astonishing that they aren’t more malnourished.”

“Malnourished children don’t have healthy skin.” Their other colleague chimed in, cynically.

“Yeah.”

*

One of the younger girls was crying again. Grace and Ava were trying to comfort her and keep the others from joining in.

“I’m so tired.” She sobbed, rubbing her eyes. “I want to go to asleep.”

“I know.” Grace was whispering. “I know, but you can’t.”

“I want to go to sleep!” she screamed a little louder.

Vivian could see that Ava was biting her tongue to keep back the automatic scolding ‘anger is the first vice’ but they weren’t supposed to say that anymore. They weren’t supposed to reinforce that idea in the younger girls.

She could see some of the other girls spread across the room thinking the same, one of the ones on Level 15 actually opened her mouth and said “anger...” before another one nudged her in the arm and whispered furiously. 

Tears were starting to appear in the eyes of some of the younger girls.

Sophia picked up one of the simple books that the teachers had given them and moved across the room, sitting on one of the beds in front of the other younger girls who looked like they were about to start crying and opened it. 

“Do you want to try reading again?”

She had glasses now and they framed her face nicely as she leant over the book. Her eyes didn’t squint anymore, and she looked happier. Although, that might not just have been the glasses, that might have been the fresh air.

Vivian rose and wandered over to the door. It was unlocked, like it always was, and that was still an odd novelty to her. A nurse walked past and smiled at her where she stood in the doorway. The corridor was wide and brightly coloured, and it had five whole windows- they had counted on the first day.

Behind her, Sophia’s voice was stumbling through the basic sentences on the pages, showing the younger girls how the different letters moved together to create sounds. They would be doing more of that with the teachers after ‘lunch’.

Lunch was still a weird concept to her. The idea that there were three distinct meals that had specific names and specific foods attached to them was so odd. The nurses still let them call each one a meal break, though and that helped to make them more normal.

Something moved at her side and Vivian turned her head to see Ava standing next to her and looking at one of the windows.

“Is she ok?”

“Yeah, Sophia distracted her with reading.”

“They’ll get used to it eventually.”

Ava didn’t answer, just continued to stare at the window. Vivian joined her, for a lack of anything else to do, the stumbling voice in the background continued.

“Do you want to go outside?” She asked hesitantly, following Ava’s gaze to the window.

“I don’t know how to do this.” Ava whispered. “I don’t know.” Her voice cracked slightly, and Vivian knew she was crying, even without looking at her. 

It had been hard on all of them, the girls on Level 16 especially, dealing with the idea that they had almost been skinned and their face would have been worn by someone else, dealing with the fact that the promise of being adopted had been a lie. Vivian knew some of them mourned the families they had never had.

She wrapped her arms around Ava and pulled them both down the hall slightly, just so they were out of the view of the other girls and let Ava cry into her shoulder: great heaving tears that had been trapped in her for years and years.

“We’re gonna get through this.” She whispered. “We have to.”

Over Ava’s shoulder, she could see Sophia exiting the room to see where they had gone. They made eye contact and she could see Ava’s sadness infect Sophia’s eyes.

“We’re going to live normal lives.” Vivian said. She didn’t know who she was trying to convince.

**Author's Note:**

> anyway i watched this film at the weekend and i had SO MANY QUESTIONS about how they would adapt to the outside world and i just needed to think about those so here u go.


End file.
